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Tesla Holiday Update: New UI for Model 3 and Y, Light Show, blind spot camera improvements & more
Just a few days before Christmas, Tesla is kicking off the holidays with a bang. This year’s Holiday Update includes a few fun surprises for Tesla owners, including new games and a few other fun features.
Teslascope, a Tesla software update tracker service, has shared that the 2021.44.25 update is being rolled out to employees for now, with a wide release following in the lead up to Christmas. Reports shared online suggest that the update works very smoothly on vehicles like the Model 3 and Model Y, however.
New Features
First off is the Light Show, which enables Tesla vehicles to dance to a choreographed light show any time of the year. The feature was a signature trick of the Model X, so it is pretty interesting that Tesla is now rolling it out to the other vehicles in its lineup. The Light Show feature can be accessed through the Toybox.
In its Holiday Update, Tesla also introduced the Customizable App Launcher, allowing owners to customize the menu bar in their infotainment systems. This should go perfectly hand-in-hand with the Model 3 and Model Y’s update UI, which now matches the interface of the Model S Plaid and new Model X that were rolled out this year.
“Drag and drop your favorite apps to any position along the bottom menu bar for easy access. To customize your menu bar, hold any icon and then drag to reorder. To adjust climate controls such as heated seats and defrost, tap on the temperature or swipe up from the bottom of the screen,” the update’s Release Notes read.
Feature Improvements
As with any update, Tesla improved a few key features, including vehicle controls, blind spot monitoring, and Waypoints.
Simplified Controls makes it easier for Tesla owners to focus on navigation, media, and the most common primary controls. The improvement should make accessing features in the infotainment system easier, so driving or operating a Tesla may be more convenient and perhaps even safer.
The Blind Spot Camera feature is probably one of the best improvements in the Tesla Holiday update, as it provides vehicles with a video feed showing their blind spot when a turn signal is activated. “You can now automatically see a live camera view of your blind spot whenever you activate the turn signal,” the Release Notes for the feature read.
The Blind Spot Camera feature will most likely improve the safety of Tesla’s vehicles. Tap Controls>Autopilot>Automatic Blind Spot Camera to enable the feature.
Tesla also made trips easier with Edit Waypoints. The navigation improvements will probably be quite useful to families taking trips this holiday. The feature allows drivers to reorder or add multiple destinations to their route. Edit Waypoints will update the arrival times for each change on the route. “To add a stop, or edit a trip, initiate a navigation route, and tap the more options button not he turn list,” wrote Tesla on the Edit Waypoints Release Notes.
New Arcade Improvements
Being a Holiday Update, 2021.44.25 is rife with a number of improvements for Tesla Theater and Tesla Arcade. Access to a popular social media platform has also been enabled.
First up is Sonic the Hedgehog, which Elon Musk himself announced on Twitter recently. Multiplayer support for The Battle for Polytopia has also been enabled, which should make in-car gaming sessions even more fun.
Sudoku has also been added to the Tesla Arcade, complete with a mode that includes a smart hint system for beginners. Also, the popular social media app TikTok is now accessible to Teslas.
Other Improvements
Update 2021.44.25 is not all fun and games. Tesla included some Cold Weather Improvements to its Holiday Update, too. Preconditioning the cabin from the Tesla Mobile App when the battery is at a lower state of charge is now enabled. First row seat heaters can now automatically regulate seat temperatures based on the cabin’s environment and control set temperature.
Managing dashcam clips is also easier, as videos can now be deleted directly from the infotainment system. Themes for the infotainment system have been rolled out, too. For instance, Dark Mode is now available for Tesla displays. Dark Mode may be a simple update, but it could make vehicles safer, as a darker display reduced the chance of screen glare for the driver.
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The in-car Tesla Theater is among the most unique features available within the cars. When charging, parked, camping, or just hanging out, vehicle occupants can access a variety of streaming platforms on the large center screen, helping keep them entertained during downtime.
However, the Theater might be getting plenty more streaming platforms, something that owners have requested for some time.
Tesla owners recently discovered that visiting Apple TV in the vehicle browser can launch a fullscreen interface that looks and behaves like a dedicated application rather than an ordinary webpage:
Today I learned that if you go to Apple TV in the Tesla browser, it will open up an actual Apple TV app, fully functional. Not just the site.
Apparently there are more apps than just the few that show on the apps page. pic.twitter.com/os1Ypfm4JR
— Jason W (@jmwilt21) August 20, 2026
The experience drops the usual address bar and browser chrome, presenting catalogs, continue watching rows, and playback controls in the same window Tesla Theater already uses for its listed services. Independent testers soon found similar treatment for HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, Disney+, and Prime Video when those sites are opened from the car browser.
This shift is a plausible early signal that Tesla is widening Theater support without a formal software note. Theater has long been a set of web views rather than native applications, so recognizing extra domains and stripping the browser frame is a small server-side change that can expand the catalog quickly.
Owners still lack permanent Theater icons for the newly recognized services, and video remains limited to Park, yet the smoother launch is a meaningful step toward a broader lounge while charging.
Tesla Theater arrived with software version 10 in September 2019. The first video services were Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu, available only while parked and originally tied to WiFi. Spotify arrived in the same era as music rather than Theater video. Disney+ joined officially in July 2021 with the 2021.24 update, giving owners another major catalog on the center screen. Twitch and TikTok later appeared among the default Theater tiles, and Tesla Tutorials remained a persistent educational tile.
Not every addition stayed put. In December 2023, a Holiday software build removed the Disney+ tile for many United States owners after a public dispute involving advertising on X. Hulu stayed visible even though Disney owned it. Visiting disneyplus.com in the browser often restored the tile, which suggested the removal was a recognition list change rather than a complete block. Owners have also reported occasional blank Theater grids after updates, usually fixed by language toggles, resets, or later firmware.
Tesla axes Disney+ from vehicles with Musk-Iger rivalry, but there’s a workaround
Code archives from 2024 listed many unused source names, including Apple TV and Prime Video, that never became official icons, which now looks like groundwork for the current fullscreen browser behavior.
Now that this hint toward an expanded Theater experience has been recognized, Tesla could follow through with these additional shortcuts as a sign that more streaming platforms are available in Teslas than ever before.
Tesla recently received its largest order for the all-electric Semi from Einride, a Swedish transport service, for 500 units, a groundbreaking invoice to receive before the first deliveries begin.
Even more remarkable, Einride CEO Roozbeh Charli said in a recent interview that he expects his company to take delivery of all 500 — the entire order — before the end of 2027. He even expects to have 75 Tesla Semi units in the Einride fleet before the end of this year.
🚨 Einride CEO Roozbeh Charli on the Tesla Semi partnership:
“If we start with the Amazon announcement that we did earlier this year, that was on the back of having gone through a proving period together with them and proving out our technology. Then we took that next step in… pic.twitter.com/oazkXjwoig
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 28, 2026
Charli said the Tesla partnership was part of a broader push, along with its earlier partnership with Amazon. Einride is assisting Amazon with the use of its Saga AI platform, which helps eliminate questions about budgeting and forecasting for logistics companies.
The Semi, as well as Tesla’s production and subsequent delivery of the units to Einride, will help the company “to have a good supply of vehicles that we can deploy on the [Saga AI] platform,” Charli said. “Tesla is also a relationship we’ve had for a while, and as the Tesla Semi deliveries are firming up, we decided to do a larger commitment to that and deploy that on our platform.”
In its initial announcement, Einride said it anticipated taking delivery of the trucks over the next two years, but now it appears the company is expecting all 500 units within the next 16 months.
Built at a dedicated factory in Sparks, Nevada, the Tesla Semi has been perhaps the biggest and most intensive testing process the company has ever had for a single vehicle model. For the past several years, Tesla has been working with many companies, most notably Frito-Lay and PepsiCo, to gain knowledge on the performance on regional routes.
Tesla plans to launch the Semi officially on September 24, five months after production started ramping.
Additionally, drivers have said they are happy about the Semi’s performance and that its numerous safety and productivity features have made their jobs and routes much easier.
Tesla Cybercab is using a unique strategy for picking up the correct rider, which is a crucial part of ride-hailing to ensure people end up in the right place and are charged the correct price.
Cybercab will utilize an RGB strip in its front light bar that will illuminate in a variety of different colors to mark itself.
This identifying mark will also appear in the Robotaxi app, giving riders in the same location a notable distinction in an effort to avoid any confusion regarding who should get in each vehicle.
🚨 Tesla is using different light bar colors to help riders understand which vehicle is theirs
Pretty cool strategy pic.twitter.com/eGMpEMeRpc
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 27, 2026
Other ride-hailing services use similar strategies: Lyft and Uber rides are recognizable through driver identity, vehicle type and color, as well as license plate. Waymo will display the rider’s initials on top of the vehicle, letting them know that the specific vehicle for them has arrived.
Tesla’s strategy is unique and interesting, but there are some flaws. Cybercab’s main purpose is aimed toward being an autonomous ride for all, including those who have disabilities like being blind or even color blind.
Tesla will likely have something in the pipeline for those who cannot see colors or have limited vision. There will definitely be multiple ways to identify which vehicle is the one that “you” specifically ordered.
Cybercab is set to start giving public rides next Thursday, September 3, in Austin, as it announced a dedicated event last week and invited many members of the Tesla community.
Additionally, members of the public will be invited as well. Tesla has been offering employee rides in Cybercab for nearly two months.
Tesla Theater might be getting plenty more streaming platforms
Tesla Semi’s biggest adoptee gives an update on production timeline
